Sonorants
/r/ has both trill [r] and tap [ɾ] realisations. In the recording, a trill [r] occurs word-initially in rapat [rapat], and in codas in sinarnya [sinarɲa] ‘its light’ and at the end of bertengkar [bɾ̩təŋkʰar] ‘fight’, while a tap [ɾ] occurs intervocalically in matahari [matɐhaɾi] 'sun' and as a syllable nucleus in tersebut [tɾ̩səbʊt] ‘aforesaid’. It is possible that the trill and tap are in free variation, with [r] tending to occur in more emphatic pronunciations.
/l/ is always clear, as with both tokens of /l/ in lalu [lalu] ‘then’ in the recording. It is also clear in coda position, as in menanggalkan [mənaŋgalkʰan] 'take off'.
Approximants /w/ and /j/ occur both in onsets (as in the consonant word list in the Section on the Consonant Example Words) and in codas: pulau /pulaw/ ‘island’ and cukai /tʃukaj/ 'tax'. (This analysis assumes there are no phonemic diphthongs in Malay. See below.) /u/ and /i/ are often reduced to [w] and [j] before a following vowel in allegro pronunciations, so kuat /kuat/ ‘strong’ can be [ku.at ~ kwat], and siapa /siapa/ 'who' can be [si.apa ~ sjapa]. In the recording, the speaker uses these allegro forms.